On a late spring evening in Brooklyn, the life of 53-year-old Alfred Bent was tragically cut short. On May 28, 2022, at approximately 11:25 p.m., Bent was in front of a brownstone on Decatur Street in the Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood when a dispute escalated into fatal violence. He was shot in the head, and officers from the 81st Precinct who responded to the scene found him unconscious and unresponsive.
Emergency medical services rushed him to Kings County Hospital, but his wound was too severe, and he was pronounced dead shortly after arriving.
The investigation into the shooting continued for five months until a breakthrough came from a tip received by law enforcement. Detectives were able to link Gabriel Hoyle, a 30-year-old resident of Reid Avenue, to the homicide. The path to his arrest in the murder case came through an unrelated incident. On October 28, 2022, Hoyle was taken into custody for a domestic issue. Following this arrest, he was questioned about the death of Alfred Bent.
The day after his arrest for the domestic incident, on October 29, Gabriel Hoyle was formally charged with murder and weapons possession in connection with Bent's death. Authorities stated that the shooting stemmed from an argument between Hoyle and Bent, though the specifics of what led to the dispute were not made public. During his arraignment in Kings County Criminal Court on October 30, Hoyle was ordered to be held without bail.
